


Learning and Living

by zephsomething



Series: Surviving the War [68]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:14:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27677233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zephsomething/pseuds/zephsomething
Summary: Luna and Rolf teach their twins to walk in a variety of places.
Relationships: Luna Lovegood/Rolf Scamander
Series: Surviving the War [68]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/813804
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14





	Learning and Living

**Author's Note:**

> The boys were born in mid-august, babies generally start walking between 9-18 months. Also any of these probably could have been their own fic in this series but I liked them all and I didn’t want five separate Luna and Fam fics in the 2006 section of this series.  
> In my version of canon Newt Scamander traveled around Europe finding and cataloging magical creatures, he did not participate in war crimes or whatever it is he does in the movies.
> 
> As always thanks to @ithopoiia for editing for me!

“You boys are getting almost too big for these slings.” Luna sighed as she tucked Lorcan’s arm back inside. They were halfway up the mountain that they were scouting for good Bowtruckle trees. Rolf’s uncle’s Bowtruckles were starting to swarm and he’d asked them to find a new place for some of them.

“Alda! Alda!” Lorcan squirmed until his arms were free again and made grabby hands towards the ground. “Alda Alda Alda!!”

“Yes yes, all done, I hear you.” Luna sighed again and turned her head so she could see Rolf out of the corner of her eye. “Lorcan would like to learn to walk.”

“Pardon?” Rolf blinked at her, the spectacles he was using to examine the trees made his eyes look like saucers. He had both his arms wrapped around Lysander’s middle as the boy tried to make an escape. Luna started giggling which set off both the boys. Lorcan pressed his hands to his cheeks as he giggled, Lysander gave up trying to escape in favour of clapping. “What’s so funny?”

Luna widened her eyes and then twirled over to him which set both the boys giggling again. She tapped his spectacles with another giggle. “You’ve gone buggy.”

“That makes two of us then.” His smile made his whole face go soft in a way that only happened when he was looking at her, or occasionally at the twins. “Their slings really are getting too small.”

“And Lorcan doesn’t like his anymore.” Luna said lifting him out and putting his feet on the ground. “Now you just move your feet like this.”

She walked exaggeratedly around Lorcan in a circle making sure not to drop his hands. The picture she made had Lysander clapping again. Rolf set down Lysander as well, holding his hands as the boy bounced from foot to foot trying to copy his mum.

——

Lysander’s foot hit a knot in the carpet and slid out from under him, knocking him onto his behind. He blinked for a second before looking to Luna for a response.

“Perhaps they’ve got snargles in their carpet.” Luna slanted a smile towards him. “They should get a cat.”

“Muh, mm, ta.” Lysander reached towards her with his hands going all grabby.

“What are snargles and why would we have them?” Ginny raised an eyebrow from where she was sitting on the couch with her new baby in his arms. A baby that got it’s middle name from Luna, that knowledge had settled all warm and fuzzy in her chest when she’d learned it and refused to leave since. “Do cats eat them?”

“They can, so they tend to avoid them.” Luna nodded seriously as she scooped Lysander up. “They tangle your carpet fibers into knots.”

“That might just be James, he’s been trying to figure out how to tie things.” Ginny shrugged, shifting a suddenly fussy Lily to a new position like that might convince her to settle enough to drink. “I caught him trying to tie our old hogwarts robes together the other day.”

“Mama! Mama! Al bonk!” As though talking about him had summoned him James came careening into the room and slammed full speed into Ginny’s knees. “Al bonk! Cry!”

“Albus hurt himself did he?” Ginny nodded seriously at him. “Where’s your dad?”

“James it’s fine!” Harry came into the room carrying Albus, who had tears on his cheeks but was settled against his dad’s shoulder. “See Al’s fine, he was just startled.”

“Fine?” James frowned up at his dad, still clinging to Ginny’s knee.

“Sometimes crying isn’t a hurting thing.” Luna nodded seriously from her spot on the floor. Lysander burbled a noise that she took as agreement. “Yes exactly, sometimes it's just the noise we use because we don’t have the right words.”

James frowned at her for a moment before running for Harry’s knees. He was cut off by Harry sinking to his level and catching him. Albus responded to this sudden change in height by reaching out and patting James’ messy auburn hair.

“Al fine?” James reached up to pat his knee.

“Pay, pay!” Albus suddenly wiggled out of his dad's arms and nearly landed on his brother.

“Play!” James agreed and took off out of the room, followed more slowly by Albus.

Lysander rocked forward out of Luna’s lap and, with her hands steadying his waist, into a standing position. He took three toddling steps after the boys before falling over again, this time with an indignant squawk.

“Looks like my boys aren’t the only ones who want to play.” Harry laughed and reached down to help Lysander stand. “You can stay here if you want Luna, me and Rolf can handle the boys.”

“You should get a cat.” Luna smiled serenely up at him. She was quite content to let them wear the kids out, then the boys might actually sleep on their next flight.

“I’ll take that under consideration.” Harry said with a grin before leading her baby out of the room and, presumably, after the other two toddlers.

——

“That’s it, feet go over the stick.” Luna encouraged the boys as they toddled between her and the logs Rolf had arranged around her as a bit of a fence. “That’s right, we can’t expect the sticks to always move out of our way.”

“You know if there is a dragon here it’s going to hear you.” Rolf pointed out from where he was measuring the breakage of a nearby branch. It had probably been broken by a bear, it was that or a Umgubular Slashkilter but Luna figured it was probably a bear. Umgubular Slashkilter were pretty rare. “If it hasn’t already.”

“This forest couldn’t support a dragon, it’s not substantial enough.” Luna said grinning at Lorcan as he babbled at her. “That’s exactly right Lorcan, there’s no scales or diggings either.”

“That may be true but the muggle papers have been talking about monsters in the woods,” Rolf sat down beside her, much to Lysander’s delight. He immediately dropped into his dad's lap and started playing a game that involved a lot of patting his dad's torso. “There’s got to be something here.”

“There is something here.” A voice said from behind them and Luna looked around to see a female centaur. “The humans and their tree felling machines reached our wards. These days it seems it takes more than just monsters to turn humans away from the forests.”

“There aren’t any centaurs here.” Rolf said, contrary to the herd that was now circling them. Lorcan toddled over towards the one that had spoken and leaned on the log there to peer up at her.

“Ah da babababa.” Lorcan babbled and the speaker frowned slightly as she looked down at him.

“Yes Lorcan, exactly.” Luna nodded and the speaker’s frown turned to her. “It’s just as we thought, no dragon or drake or anything of the sort in these woods, unfortunately no umgubular slashkilter or crumple-horned snorkack either. A shame, I would have loved to get a photo of one for daddy.”

“Is that what he said?” A smaller centaur came up beside the speaker and lowered their body slightly to peer at Lorcan. “It just sounded like babbling.”

“It was babbling.” Rolf said, confusion still clear on his face.

“I speak baby.” Luna answered at the same time.

“Sorry but where did your herd migrate from?” Rolf handed Lysander to Luna and stood up to face the speaker. “There are no records of any centaurs here.”

“We should start with our names Rolf.” Luna smiled dreamily up at him. “Not everyone tells their secrets before they know a person's name.”

“You should listen to your mate.” The speaker’s smile was a small thing but Luna quite liked it; almost as much as she liked the way Rolf sputtered and turned red. “She seems like the clever sort.”

“That’s, she is, I mean, sorry.” Rolf rubbed at his neck as Luna stood up with Lysander in her arms. “I’m Rolf Scamander, this is Luna Lovegood, and the boys are our twins; Lysander and Lorcan Scamander-Lovegood. Could I ask your name?”

“You may.” The corners of her eyes crinkled slightly as Rolf stumbled over his words. “I am called Kassilla, this impertinent foal is my daughter Dorona.”

“Can you really speak baby?” Dorona danced back and forwards again as Lorcan babbled up at her. “What’s he saying now?”

“That you have a lovely name and he is impressed with your being able to walk.” Luna smiled dreamily and moved to sit on the log in front of Dorona. “On account of your many legs.”

“I don’t have many legs,” Dorona giggled. “I only have four, that’s the normal amount of legs.”

“Not to Lorcan.” Luna shrugged as Lorcan grabbed at her legs and tried to use her to climb the log, with limited success.

“I feel like we’ve gotten off track.” Rolf ran a hand through his hair while the other danced vaguely around him. “I’m certain none of the records say there are centaurs in these woods, and you mentioned wards and human tree felling machines, muggle ones I mean, with no magic?”

“Because the ministry records are so safe a place to list every fern and field you might live in.” Kassilla raised her eyebrow slightly before frowning at his question. “No magic, just spewing death into the air and chopping trees down by the dozen.”

“Are the wards yours? Are they plant magic or wand magic or something different altogether? If you don’t mind my asking.” Luna leaned towards her, partly out of interest and partly because Lysander was already leaning towards her. “They’re not like anything I’ve seen before and we went right past with hardly the buzz of a wrackspurt.”

“They are ours, wizards do not have the monopoly on magic they like to believe they do. I don’t mind your asking if you don’t mind my not telling.” She said, her frown twitching at the corners as a smile tried to fight its way out. “What is a wrackspurt?”

“Little invisible creatures.” Luna adjusted Lysander on her hip, standing and taking a step towards the centaur as she did so. “They get in your ears and make your mind go all gray and fuzzy at the edges. It can be quite confusing if you don’t expect it.”

“Right, so what do your wards do?” Rolf frowned and stepped towards Kassilla as well. “Maybe we can help?”

“You can help if you are willing to help us get rid of the muggle’s machines.” She held up a hand to stop Rolf as he opened his mouth. “I cannot trust your ministry with knowledge of my herd’s homelands. There are few places of true sanctuary left for us.”

“I know someone in the ministry, she could help put up some more wards in your forest. We might even be able to convince her to do it without listing you as why.” Luna set Lysander on the ground. Now that he wasn’t in her arms he seemed to lose all his bravery, though he lost none of his curiosity. He clung to her leg but continued to peer at where Lorcan was now playing some version of patty cake with Dorona. Luna smiled dreamily at Kassilla. “She works in the Department for Magical Creatures, she didn’t get exactly the name she wanted for it but several of her other policies slipped through unnoticed during that debate.”

“Is your someone the Granger girl?” Kassilla tapped a hoof thoughtfully against the log in front of her. “I’ve heard about her, intelligent, prickly, and willing to listen.”

“She’s getting better at listening every year.” Luna’s smile widened as Rolf raised an eyebrow at her. “You’ve met Hermione.”

“I would not have described her as willing to listen.”

“She listens when she remembers that it’s important.” Luna shrugged and Kassilla let out a laugh that rang through the trees with the cadence of a whinny. “Witches and Wizards sometimes make her forget that it’s important.”

“She got mad at me because my grandfather listed centaurs and merpeople as beasts.” Rolf waved his hands. “They asked to be classified that way!”

“Technically we asked to be left to our own devices.”

“They didn’t want to be told what to do by the ministry.” Luna spoke at the same time as Kassilla. “It’s not quite the same.”

“Though your grandfather was correct in that our representatives declined ‘being’ status as it had been laid out to us.” She shook her hair out as she spoke. “We believed it wiser to conduct our own affairs rather than allow the witches and wizards of the ministry to conduct them for us.”

“A wise decision as it turned out, what with that particularity hateful wizard taking control of your ministry twice in the last half-decade.” Another centaur walked up beside Kassilla. “Our wards have made the humans withdraw again but they push closer every day.”

“If they refuse to be satisfied with what they have we may have to pick a more extreme tactic.” Kassilla sighed and turned to Luna. “May I request a moment of your time? You said you were friends with Ms Granger.”

“You may request as many moments as you like as long as you leave some for my boys.” Luna shifted Lysander’s hold to Rolf’s legs before following Kassilla a few paces away.

Rolf was left with one toddler hanging onto his leg and the other playing a clapping game with the younger centaur. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Luna would be fine but he wasn’t sure what it was he should do now. Then Lysander whimpered so he scooped him up.

“Why do your foals not run and play while their mother is busy?” The centaur who’d brought the news about the wards asked. Now that Rolf was paying more attention to him he realized the centaur’s face still had the round unfinished look of a teenager. They looked older than Dorona but they were clearly not finished growing. “They are small but you’ve put logs for them to play on.”

“Well the logs are really to keep them in one area, they can’t climb over them.” Rolf explained and stepped closer. He shifted Lysander so he was facing towards the centaur. “See how his legs still curve rather than having two straight parts like mine? Humans aren’t born knowing how to walk, and it’s one of those things that takes us years to learn. They can do some walking on their own but they’re not running or climbing yet.”

“That doesn’t seem advantageous.” The centaur leaned towards him to peer at Lysander, their frown prompting a giggle from the toddler. “Foals should be able to walk on their own hooves.”

“You’re welcome to try and teach them that, Lysander’s a bit shy currently but Lorcan who’s playing with Dorona there would probably be thrilled if you let him hold onto you while he walked.” Rolf felt a grin spread across his face as the centaur stepped carefully into the ring of logs and leaned down to talk to Lorcan. He immediately grabbed onto one of the centaur’s legs.

As soon as the centaur figured out how to walk without stepping on the boy Dorona jumped into the circle as well. She pranced around them, laughter spilling out of her. Rolf sat down on one of the logs to watch them. It wasn’t long before Lysander was trying to get down to go join in the fun. Dorona was more than happy to take his hands once she noticed him trying to join them.

Rolf pulled out his sketchbook. He wasn’t as much of an artist as Luna but everyone in his family could take down a decent enough sketch. Luna would be able to make something beautiful out of it.

——

Padma had sent a letter asking if Luna could come help her with a detailed painting she had been commissioned to make, which was how Rolf found himself sitting in a corner of the surprisingly large studio with a rapidly cooling cup of tea and his sleeping sons.

Luna had been whisked off to the side of the studio that had some kind of brown fabric covering the ground and dozens of half finished canvases up on easels. As she’d walked away Luna had turned and pointed out Dean and Dennis. The former of which was hard at work in an area that looked like someone had tossed it looking for something and not cared who knew they’d been there. The supplies were a mix of paints, fabrics, brushes, and pots of what could have been either glitter or pixie dust. Dennis however had seemed overjoyed to get a cup of tea for him and some snacks for the boys.

The boys had walked around for a few minutes babbling to each other and testing different chairs. Then they’d found a beanbag they could both fit on and immediately fell asleep.

“- then I leaned so far over the boat nearly tipped!” Dennis’ laughter brought Rolf’s attention back to the current conversation. “I was so small, I fell right in of course!”

“Into the lake?”

“Right into Hogwarts’ lake of monsters!” Dennis grinned at him. “I was so excited, and even more so when something large and scaled pushed me back into the little boat! I dripped all the way through the sorting ceremony.”

“Are you telling the ‘fell into the lake’ story again?” The question came from the direction of the stairs. Rolf looked up to see a pale man with a mess of brown hair and a smear of what was probably (hopefully) dirt smeared on his cheek. “You’re going to run out of people who haven’t heard it if you tell it to every new face you see.”

“Then I’ll just have to tell it to you again.” Dennis said with a wide grin at the newcomer. Then he gestured between him and Rolf. “He’s Seamus, he’s Dean’s beau. This is Rolf, he’s Luna’s something, the sleepers are Lorcan and Lysander, their twins.”

“I really wish you’d use literally any other word.” Seamus rubbed at his face.

“I’m Luna’s partner.” Rolf said at the same time. He exchanged smiles with Seamus before gesturing at his cheek. “You’ve got a little uh…”

Seamus just grinned before turning slightly to project his voice. “Dean, if you want dinner you have to come home at some point.”

“Seamus?” Dean looked up for the first time since Rolf and Luna had arrived. He walked over and immediately reached up to wipe the dirt off of Seamus’ cheek. “Hello love, how was work?”

“A blast.” Seamus grinned like it was a joke, which it must have been because it had Dean fondly rolling his eyes. “And I didn’t even use any magic on this site.”

“Good, I get enough angry letters as it is.”

“Dean works in a mostly muggle demolition company.” Dennis relayed the information in a stage whisper that Dean and Seamus both pretended they didn’t hear. “He comes in every day with a smear on his face like we don’t all know he just wants Seamus to touch him.”

Rolf was saved from having to think up a response by the boys waking up with matching cries. Luna got to them a second after he did, but she got there with the bottles.

Once the boys were fed the conversation turned to art and technique and Rolf was content just to listen. Luna fit so well among the artists for a moment he almost worried that she was missing something traveling with him as she did. Then she caught his eyes and the warmth in her face when she looked at him calmed his worries better than any words could have.

**Author's Note:**

> Huge thanks to all my readers, commenters, and kudosers! Y'all turned my little 'set the scene for my next gen fic' idea into it's own massive series.


End file.
